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Comment by mstade | Hacker News Reader

I'd love it if I didn't get dead tree invitations. I have nowhere to put them and I feel bad throwing them away. And also of course, dead trees.

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I've kept every wedding invitation I've ever received. They take up a small corner of my "personal memories" shoebox. I don't really understand how you can have nowhere to keep them unless you're living out of a suitcase.

How often do you pull those old wedding invitations out and what value do you get by holding onto them?

I think the fundamental dilemma here is between the "packrat" and the "thrifty liver"

I have a box with all my old handwritten letters from just before the Internet and email exploded. I rarely take it out, but when I do, it's kind of neat to show my niece and nephew.

Rarely. Certainly not more than once a year; if I'm adding a new one to the box, I might leaf through the old ones. But it's a nice sense of joy and continuity, and I can of course know that they're there without having to even open the box. The emotional value like most mementoes varies over time, but trends gradually upwards.

(I do wonder if all the people who say "collect memories, not things" have more vivid, eidetic memories than I do; mine can be a little fragmentary without help.)

For things that I want to remember I take a photo and then get rid of the item.

I began doing this when my kids started school and would bring home new art every day. I love that they made a portrait of me by gluing macaroni to a paper plate then covering it in glitter, but I don't necessarily want to become the caretaker of that masterpiece forever.

Jimmy shows dad his new masterpiece.

"That's great Jimmy! Now let me get my camera..."

SNAP!

"There, now we've got that memory forever. Now open the trash can and throw it away!"

I know you don't literally do this, but that's what your comment made me think and it gave me a chuckle. How long do you usually hold on to them?

My kids are teenagers now, so the flow of glitter and glue art has slowed considerably.

There was no rigid routine. Things would go in a pile and periodically the pile would go to the recycling bin.

Seriously? I received maybe 3 cards of weeding and more thant 30 for my birdthay. I kept them all too. We can save tree when there's purpose like printing for reading an email, for invoice, etc. because they don't give or add any value, but my handmade card for my weeding, if you throw it is disrespectful, because If I had invite you, it's that I take care of you. (BTW I made only 15 invitations.)

I wouldn't assume disrespect. Material items don't hold the same meaning or power for everybody. I used to move a lot and if you expect me to carry something you gave me from place-to-place for the rest of my life, well that could be seen as disrespectful as well.

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